Brian checked yet another room, wondering where his charge had run off to. It had been hours since he left Nick in his office to go talk to his wife, and when he’d returned he found his friend gone. Brian had searched the house completely, wondering if finally his brain had snapped back to reality and Nick had never been there in the first place. 

As he stepped outside onto the porch he let out a sigh of relief, glad to see Nick sitting on the railing of the deck. As crazy as he thought he was for seeing him, he was sort of getting attached to having him back, and didn’t want him to leave again. 

“What’s wrong?” Brian asked as he approached the young man. The sun was hitting Nick just right, making him look foggy and…see through. Nick had always looked solid, and just as he did before he died so to see him looking so ghostly was a bit of a shock to the system. 

“Remember when you told me Toni had been cleared after the police found that DNA on my body?” Nick asked, not looking away from the backyard. 

“Yes, I remember. Why do you ask?”

“Toni and I did have sex but if I was gone for two days before my body was found, it would have been four days since she and I had been together. I had showered, I had changed my clothes, and I had gotten her completely out of my system…how could the police have found her DNA on my skin still? Hell, I was found at the beach…did the tide never come in? Was my body bone dry when they found it?”

“Do you remember all that?”

“Just answer my question please,” Nick sighed. 

“Well, they did search your house maybe they found it there?” Brian suggested, shrugging his shoulders slightly. He wanted to know what Nick remembered about who had hurt him not what his libido was like before he was taken.

“You said they found it on my body! Did they find it in my house or on my body?” the younger man demanded.

“I’ll check,” Brian held up his hands in defence then ran back into his office to grab the folder that he kept all of the police reports in. He’d hired a private detective who had managed to scrounge up all of the things the police had refused to give him. He brought the folder back out to the deck, reading over some of the information, “On your body. It says here the DNA was on your body.”

“They’re lying!”

“The police are lying?” Brian questioned, surprised by Nick’s revelation, “How do you figure?”

“The day before I went to that club with Howie and AJ I broke up with Toni. No one knew about it because I wanted to deal with it myself without everyone thinking I needed their help. She and I had…been together, that day and then I saw a bunch of text messages her in phone…I can’t recall exactly what they said but I asked her if she was cheating on me. She eventually told me that during our last tour she’d started seeing someone else, had tried to break it off but then decided not to. She’d been seeing us both since then. I kicked her out right then and there, and the first thing I did when she walked out the door was have a shower. I wanted her off of me, so I scrubbed until I was raw. There’s no way there was enough DNA to make her a suspect left on my body four days later,” Nick theorized to his friend, finally turning around to face him. Since he had gotten back from the library a lot of things started to make sense in his head, or rather, they didn’t make sense. He was deeply disturbed by the memories he’d gotten back, but now he needed to help Brian and not think about his own misery. 

“Did you get your memories back?” Brian asked, not wanting to touch on what Nick had just told him before knowing exactly how he knew all of those details.

“Yes, I have them back,” Nick replied, his voice full of frustration, “Back to the matter at hand!”

“Okay,” the older man nodded, “So you think the police fabricated the evidence because…?”

“They didn’t need DNA to lead them to Toni,” Nick tried to explain, “They had to have known about her before, but they found a way to clear her so they wouldn’t have to explain why they never looked at her as a suspect.”

“I don’t think I follow,” Brian chimed in, wanting to know exactly what Nick was getting at. 

“From what I can tell,” Nick began, putting the pieces together in his head, “The guy that Toni was dating was into something illegal. That night at the club she came to me and asked me for some money so she could get away from the guy. Obviously when she’d told me she had tried to break up with him but decided not to, that actually meant he wouldn’t let her. Now, this is just a guess, but I think this guy might have been in the mob.”

“Like the mafia? Is there even an LA mafia?” Brian suddenly laughed, shaking his head dramatically, “And I thought I was crazy for talking to a ghost now you’re telling me your death was a mob hit and the police are covering it up?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Nick deadpanned, crossing his arms firmly across his chest. 

“And you’re absolutely certain you’re not completely insane?”

“Stop it Brian I’m being serious here! You have no idea what I went through to remember all of these details and now that I’m trying to help you solve this mystery you’ve been killing yourself over for the past year you’re mocking me!”

“I’m sorry,” Brian apologized, knowing Nick was right. He had been searching for these kinds of details, but he had never imagined Nick would tell him that organized crime was the motive behind his murder, “I want to know everything you know. To be honest it kind of worries me that your murder could be linked to something as serious as that because you know what happens then? Absolutely nothing! If the police are covering this up then we’re never going to get the answers we want and need. I certainly can’t go to the cops and tell them what you just told me because I’d be accusing them of lying about your case.”

“Then we’ll do it ourselves,” Nick shrugged.

“I’m sorry? We’ll do it ourselves? What are we, Brian and Nick P.I? We can’t do it ourselves!”

“Why can’t we?” Nick demanded to know.

“You expect me to go running all over the place chasing after some Mafioso who you claim had something to do with your murder?” Brian laughed fiercely, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. 

“I said we!”

“Oh, right, I’m sorry, you said we! So I can go running all over the place chasing after some Mafioso with my good friend the invisible spirit creature! I’m really sorry Nick, I know you have nothing to lose at this point but I do! I’m not exactly ready to get caught up in some seedy underworld and get myself killed! I’m really not ready to die yet!” 

“AND I WAS?!” Nick exploded, his voice seething with anger, “You went on and on about how all you wanted was to solve my murder but then when it comes time to actually do it you won’t! The police aren’t going to help you, I know they won’t. There’s no way they would have cleared Toni! The police and the FBI are always watching those types of people, so they had to have known she was linked to them. My murder didn’t exactly look random and unplanned, they had to have suspected. There would have been tapes from outside the club that night with the two of us on it, but you never heard about any tapes did you...because they never looked for them. Saying that, it’s now in our hands; don’t you want to help me get justice? That way you can move on with your life. I was in no way ready to die Brian don’t think because I didn’t have a pretty wife and a perfect child that I was okay with the fact that someone stole my life from me. I told you before, I don’t want to be stuck here watching everyone else be happy while I’m miserable forever,” he finished in a whisper, realizing now more than ever what Flora had meant by there being consequences to him getting his memories back. 

Brian opened his mouth to apologize once again when the sound of the side gate opening caught his attention and he turned away from Nick, not wanting anyone to know he was talking to himself again.

“I heard yelling,” AJ commented as he walked into Brian’s backyard. He had gone to the front door and Leighanne and told him Brian was out back. When he’d gotten to the gate he could hear Brian talking to someone but upon inspection there was no one there. 

“Venting,” Brian shrugged, watching Nick out of the corner of his eye as AJ walked across the patio with his hands in his pockets. 

“More like being a hypocrite,” Nick muttered, rolling his eyes. 

“So, what do you think of the backyard?” Brian asked, grabbing AJ by the shoulders so he could turn him directly towards Nick, hoping the other man would see their friendly apparition. 

“It looks exactly the same as it did the last time I was here,” AJ replied dryly, seeing right through Nick to the lush grass below.

“I bet AJ would help me take on the mob,” Nick said haughtily hopping down from the railing. 

“Why don’t you go ahead and ask him!” Brian said sarcastically, glaring at Nick.

“Ask who what?” AJ asked, surprised by Brian’s sudden outburst. 

“I…thought you said something else,” Brian mumbled, excusing his flare-up. 

AJ raised an eyebrow, staring at his friend sceptically, “Are you sure you’re okay? I know yesterday must have been hard for you…”

“I’m fine,” Brian assured him, “My ears are just a little plugged,” since Nick never shuts up.

“You should see a doctor about that,” Nick of course piped up. 

Brian fought the urge to reply and just watched AJ as he glanced around the yard.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” AJ asked and Nick couldn’t help but think how badly he could go for a cigarette. 

“Go right ahead,” Brian shrugged.

AJ took out the pack and bumped out a cigarette, searching his pockets for his lighter, “I think I left my lighter in the car,” he commented.

“I’ve got a light,” Brian said and grabbed a pack of matches off the top of the barbeque, tossing them to his tattooed friend. 

“Thanks,” AJ smiled and opened the matchbook, breaking off the small paper end and folding back the top of the pack so he could light it.

“Oh my god,” Brian heard Nick whisper from the other side of the patio, watching Nick approach AJ slowly, his eyes wide. 

Brian looked at him quizzically, wondering what was wrong. 

“I do...I did... I did the same thing, flip over the top and slide the match between the top and the strip that lights the match…there was something written on the inside of the flap,” he said, the memories flooding back in greater detail like a slap to the face.

Brian couldn’t speak because AJ was already staring at him funny, so he tried to relay a message with his facial expressions, wondering what on earth was going on.

“Brian there was something written on the inside of the matchbook! I had the list!”

“So what should we do?” Brian asked, directing the question to Nick even though he was speaking to AJ. He had no idea what list Nick was talking about but it was obviously important to him.

“Please tell me you have my things still,” Nick said at the same time that AJ asked whether Brian still had his Xbox set up.

“I do,” Brian nodded, giving Nick eye contact before leading AJ into the house. 

Nick ran his hands through his hair as he watched Brian walk into the house, he needed Brian to talk to Toni and he needed to know where his belongings had ended up so he could find that matchbook and finally have some evidence to prove he wasn’t completely off base in his claims that his murder was more than what it seemed.